Green Montana - SAUDADE

Green Montana doesn't just drop an album; he delivers a diagnosis of an identity in flux between Paris and Lisbon. Saudade isn't merely a follow-up to Nostalgia+; it's the final seal on a cycle that began with Alaska. The record runs 40 minutes and 55 seconds, enough travel time to cross the emotional borders the artist has chosen. If the first listen might seem strangely quiet, a second listen reveals: it isn't silence that dominates, but an active melancholy carried by guitars and voices answering one another like in an urban choir.

Phileas Fogg: The Pact of Departure

The album's opening is immediate and conceptual. Track 1, Phileas Fogg, doesn't serve as a classic sonic hook but establishes a narrative metaphor from the very first second. The track references a journey around the world, suggesting that Green Montana traverses here interior territories he previously explored with Alaska (2020) and Nostalgia+ (2022), but this time without the same certainties. It's the starting point of a narration where every song is a geographical or psychological step, transforming the album into an auditory diary.

Bank feat. Josman & Tiakola: The Archipelago of Voices

This isn't just an addition of energy: the simultaneous presence of both artists creates a vocal texture that literally embodies the concept of saudade, that Portuguese sentiment of longing mixed with hope. Each voice brings its own melancholic color without drowning out the other, creating a soundscape where individual solitude transforms into collective experience. It's a demonstration that the album isn't meant to be a solitary monologue, but rather a dialogue between several souls who have shared the same sonic spaces.

Dashboard feat. ISHA: an intimate vocal contrast

Track 7 introduces a necessary rupture in the overall texture of the project. ISHA's intervention on Dashboard immediately shifts the register: her voice, softer and more intimate, contrasts with the sometimes raw energy of previous tracks. This collaboration isn't there to add spectacle, but rather to further humanize the narrative. It transforms the song into a personal confession, where the distance between the artists becomes in itself a narrative element. It's the moment when the album turns inward, as if Green Montana were finally confiding his doubts to someone who doesn't seek to compete but simply wishes to understand.

Barcelona92 feat. SDM: the memory of a journey

Track 14 is an essential key to understanding the evolution of Green Montana. The presence of SDM is not a coincidence: the two artists have known each other since Nostalgia+ (2022), where they had already collaborated on Neymar Jr, and SDM had in turn invited Green Montana onto Nwar sur Nwar. This shared history adds extra depth to the track. It is not a featuring between two strangers, but rather the continuation of an artistic dialogue that began long before the album's release. The song thus functions as an ark, linking past and present while placing Green Montana within a lineage of authentic collaborations where each artist contributes something to the other without seeking to eclipse them.

Finally rich feat. Theodorepourdevrai: the end as a new beginning

Track 18 closes the album with rare lucidity for a record that aims to be melancholic. Theodorepourdevrai does not come to add weight or gravity, but rather brings this necessary touch of acceptance required for any successful conclusion. The track itself is revealing: we have lost everything, yes, but we also gained it along the way. It is a conclusion that refuses despair in favor of embracing the idea that every end is also a beginning. Green Montana does not close his chapter on complaint, but on the recognition of wealth acquired at the price of the journey.

Saudade is not a perfect album in the commercial sense, and perhaps that is its greatest strength. It does not seek to please everyone, but rather to say something honest about a specific period in the life of its creator. Between Alaska, which was already a first step toward this melancholy, and Nostalgia+, which deepened these themes, Green Montana finds here the balance between introspection and openness to other voices. It is an album that marks the passage from one phase to another, not through a great flash of celebrity, but through the maturity of an artist who accepts turning the page to better understand what he has built so far.

Technical Details

- Release: April 5, 2024 - Label: 92i Records, Capitol Music France - Tracks: 18 (40 min 55 s) - Opening / Closing: phileas fogg / finalement riche - Guests: Josman, Tiakola, ISHA, SDM, Theodorepourdevrai